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We've both been using Iolo System Mechanic Professional for over a year (it has 3 licenses) , but we had Norton 360 before that, (also 3 licenses) so we was only using the diagnostic stuff, not the firewall & antivirus components.

I renewed our SysMechPro about a month ago about the same time 360 expired...so rather than pony up $80 to renew 360, we removed it & installed the full SysMechPro package (updated to v9.5). BTW, I used the 3rd SysMech 'seat' on my office laptop, but that is/will always be diagnostics/repair only;It is FINE...no problems...making me think the prob below has to be w/the firewall or antivirus components.

Low and behold, Thursday morning...BOTH OF OUR COMPUTERS ARE CRASHED!!! Mine is caught in a rebooting loop (but get BSOD when I hit "disable auto-restart", hers goes right to SAME BSOC that say "serious damage...blah blah...preventing..blah blah...restart"...then some error codes:

We can't start in safemode (or anything). I have a PowerSuite recovery disc...it says it can't find windows. I CAN get to my disc via a Winernals program, so I think I can pullout my docs/photos.

And I called Iolo, and they gave me these instructions:

Boot from windows cd and wait for the main setup menu.Press R to enter recovery console.Choose 1 as seen below and enter the admin pw.

Then type this command:

cd system32\driversren atapi.sys atapi.oldexpand D:\i386\atapi.sy_

Get message 1 file expandedReboot normally.

(btw, how do I do those 3 'lines'; all together (they DO say "..this command" [singular] Or do I do them one at a time with "enter" after each one?)

I'll certainly try that, but my god...Iolo tried to say it must have been a virus or something. HUH? My 84 yo mother & I really don't surf the same sites, and the fact that they both crashed THE SAME FRIGGEN DAY, THE SAME FRIGGEN WAY has to signal it's the program's fault.

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System Mechanic...I tried that during my Win 98 days and found that it did nothing useful that I could not do without it.

Just for the record...BC (and others) takes a dim view of such programs, for the very reasons that you now are experiencing.

Why I Don't Use Registry Cleaners Mr. Bott is, among other things, the person who hosted the first computer forum I ever visited/participated in. I, and others, hold his advice/suggestions in high regard.

To answer your questions...I have a question...have you actually tried following the directions provided?

Are these two systems part of a home network?

The "fix" may or may not work, trying it will reveal such. There's no point in speculating as to whether it will work, when attempting to execute it will reveal whether it works or not.

Iolo may have had documented history where their software produced this particular STOP error...I don't know, you don't indicate why they suggested the sequence you listed. I will say that the cure for this type of STOP error varies and is not something universally agreed on.

The typical "authority" on STOP errors is at http://www.aumha.org/a/stop.htm. This site reflects generic info on various types of STOP errors, yours (7B) can be found by scrolling the left column. As you see, 7B is "inaccessible boot device" but the fact is that any number of situations can cause this.

If I had this error...I would start with checking the status of the hard drive itself. The known correction I would employ...would be a repair install of XP.

Lets give this a try. You will need a flash drive to move information from the sick computer to a working computer. It is the only way we can see the progress of our actions. Save these instructions in your flash drive as a text file (use notepad) so you can have access to these while in an external environment (PE).

Here is what you need to do.

Two programs to download

First

Download ISOBurner. Click Here for ISOBurner Instructions. Install the program, and follow the next set of steps.

Second

Download OTLPE.iso and burn to a CD using ISO Burner. NOTE: This file is 276.7MB in size so it may take some time to download.

When downloaded double click and this will then open ISOBurner to burn the file to CD

Boot the Non working computer using the boot CD you just created.

In order to do so, the computer must be set to boot from the CD firstNote : For information click here